'Riverdale’s Ashleigh Murray on Playing Josie McCoy and Representation

She's ready to rock.

RIVERDALE

Photo: Katie Yu/The CW

Everyone has their role to play in the sleepy town of Riverdale, but it's Josie McCoy, played by Ashleigh Murray, who steals the show.

It's fitting, of course: Josie is the same lead singer of Josie and the Pussycats, the band that has long since lept out of the original Archie comics series, landed their own franchise, and even earned a cult classic (and entirely campy) movie in their honor. But perk your cat ears up to what the new Josie, who features prominently in the CW's new show Riverdale, has to say. It's important, and she's going to make you listen.

Ashleigh joins Hayley Law as Valerie Brown and Asha Bromfield as Melody Valentine; together, the three make up the coolest band at Riverdale High. And when Archie Andrews decides he wants to become a singer-songwriter, it's the Pussycats who put him in his place. But there's more for Josie to deal with than calling her new co-writer out on the fact that his allyship needs work; her mom is the mayor of Riverdale, and must deal with the mysterious death of Jason Blossom accordingly.

Teen Vogue caught up with Ashleigh to talk about how she approached the role of Josie, how she hopes the Pussycats inspire a new generation of female rock stars, and the fact that she already knows who killed Jason. But don't ask her to tell you who did it — her glossed lips are sealed.

Teen Vogue: There are a number of iterations of Josie through the years, from the Archie comics to her own spin-off comic and TV show, to the movie. What about this reimagining of Josie spoke to you?

Ashleigh Murray: I don't know how to explain it more than sometimes when you read a role and you know it's you. I was sitting on the train reading the character breakdown, and I was like, "All right, cool." Who is Josie to me? Well, she's really sassy, she's always dressed to the nines, a little edgy, never wearing sneakers, if she in in flats it's probably a ballet with studs on it. And she always has lip gloss. I don't know what it was, but that's how I broke her down in my head. That's kind of how I always envisioned her and how I related to her ever since I was a kid, and even through the movie. And once I read the sides, one of the lines that I say to Archie is, "Read my glossed lips." And I was like, "All right, it's cool, I got this. I know exactly what I'm doing."

I took it from there. I didn't want to pull too much from what had already been done; I wanted to really breathe a different kind of life into Josie that is more relatable in this time. We're putting Riverdale in 2016, so everything is current, everything is different, everything evolved. I wanted to bring that evolution to this character in a way that hadn't been done yet.

TV: Throughout the episodes, Josie often puts Archie in his place as a guy who doesn't understand what it means to be a black woman; he offers to write songs for her and she rightfully points out that he has little idea what her life is like, and doesn't want him to literally put words in her mouth. What was that dynamic like, and what do you think the people who are watching it will ideally get from it?

AM: I think it's going to ring true to a lot of people, especially with the way that the climate is in the States right now. Being able to comment on the situation in a way that we weren't able to before, I think, is really important. The original comics were very happy-go-lucky, and in some ways weren't the best description or representation of feminism or equality. But as the comics evolved, it kind of folded in with the times.

With Josie and Archie [on Riverdale], it's really important to have that conversation in a constructive manner. It's a tough conversation to have, and I believe that it's all about inclusion and being able to word things properly so that they land the way that they need to. I also think it's important to show a young woman standing up for herself, and not allowing a male influence to stop what she believes. She makes sure that it's understood: "I'm just as important at this table as you are. I'm not less than you are, I work just as hard, and I have been working hard, and unfortunately I have to work harder, because people seem to think that I'm not worth that success, because of the color of my skin. But that's not true, and I'm not going to let that stop me, and I'm not going to let you stop me either." It's definitely not aggressive. It's to the point, and it's very obvious, and it's like, this is how things are, we can roll with it or you can not, but either way I'm going to keep pushing. So [those were actually] really fun scene to shoot. I wish I had more scenes with KJ! He's so much fun to play with! And he's so receptive.

That's how I view that situation. I take very delicate care with how I portray her, and not only because I'm a young black woman portraying her. [I hope she's] going to be a really lovely role model for so many brown and black girls across the world. She is a young woman and she's conspiring to succeed, and she wants to be a star, and she wants to be successful. I want to make sure that I do that justice in a way that it's not ditzy and it's not compromised, especially with heavy matters like that.

TV: Hollywood is still frustratingly whiter than not, but Riverdale itself is very inclusive, and in a genuine way. Josie, Val, and Melody are all black women, and Josie's mom is the mayor of Riverdale. They're given very weighty roles to play in the town dynamic. Is there a message you hope this representation sends to viewers?

AM: Specifically for me, I love this role because I get to be in it with my hair natural, and my hair is a type of curl pattern that you don't see very often on TV. And it's a curl pattern that's actually a bit more common in that black community than the typical spiral curl. That's not to say that we don't have women of color that have that curl type, because we do, but there are a lot more textures that are not shown. So being able to mimic that true life style, and then also the way that you can style your hair is so big and so important to me, so that is one thing.

The other thing is, I'm not playing a stereotype. Even though I'm embodying this character who has never lived or breathed or done anything — she's completely fabricated — I'm embodying this character that is different than the way that I look. Yet I still stand for the same things that I believe she stands for. I still believe that Josie... she's a powerhouse! And that's what I want to play up, that she's gritty and she's willing to dig deep and do whatever it takes to succeed. That's something that also rings true for black women. We have ... It's almost like it's in our DNA to survive. We're caretakers, we're strong, fierce mothers. We rear people like nobody's business, and we succeed. So I think that's going to ring true especially to people like my niece. I want to be able to give a positive image for people to look up to.

I view this Josie as a reincarnation. It's not so much that I'm trying to erase or undo what was already done, but present it to the public that way is a bit more palatable, and it's a bit easier for people to connect to. It's really important to be able to imitate life the way that we see it, so I'm so ready to open up people's eyes and be like, "Look! This is everyday life, this is what it's like, and this is how kids handle it, and this is how particularly kids from this background handle it!" So I want to be able to reach people in that manner so that there is no discomfort. They can ease right into it and be like, "Yeah, all right, this is cool. This is great."

TV: Regarding the murder mystery especially, Josie has a very special part to play in that her mom is the mayor and is dealing with an event that has shaken the town. How do you think she's reacting to the way the town is changing?

AM: Honestly I think this trajectory of her mother's own path of success isn't new. I imagine that Josie's been to all of the rallies for her to be elected, and [Mayor McCoy] probably served on a smaller board at one point, so Josie seeing that her mom needs to take care of bigger and better things, or sometimes very difficult and scary things, is not new to her. She's also a 15-year-old, and is like, Yeah, it's scary, yeah, it sucks, there's a body floating around somewhere and nobody knows who did it, but I have this show that I have to put on and I really need to rehearse. So you do that, and I'm going to go do this. That's how I feel like Josie really handles it.

TV: Do you have an idea of who the killer is?

AM: It's so funny because we recently found out who the killer is. They have kept tight-lipped about it the entire time we've been shooting. So episode two and on I was like, "Oh man, no, it was definitely the Coopers, Hal Cooper totally murdered him," and then by episode four, it's 6 in the morning and we're sitting in the hair and makeup trailer and we're like, "I don't think it was Hal, I think it was Ms. Grundy." And they were like, "No! It couldn't be!" We have been discussing this for quite some time, and I was shocked when I found out who it is. Everybody's going to be so shocked, I could not believe it! They found out at the table read, and in between shoots they came up and they were like, "Oh my god, oh my god, I know who the killer is," and I was floored. We've been talking about it for about six months, and we only just now found out and nobody was right.

TV: Is there any lesson in particular that you think viewers can learn from Josie?

AM: I can't express enough to anyone who is fighting for whatever their dream is, whether it's to become a doctor, or a teacher, or a photographer — it doesn't matter — it's such a hard, hard road. There's no guarantee, and there's no proper path to follow that will directly lead you to where you want to go. But stick with it, if you know in your bones that this is what you were put on this earth to do and the world would be a darker place without you pursuing your dreams, than keep at it. Keep doing it because when it comes back to you, this is far more than tenfold, and it's only the beginning, and it's overwhelming but it's so great.

It's driving me to keep pushing through and keep getting to where I want to be. I want to have those moments like Meryl, I want to be able to move people the way that Viola does, I want to make history, I want some little kid to be sitting at home watching Chronicles of Narnia the way that I did and be like, "That's what I want to do! I want to make somebody sit down and watch the same movie over and over again and cry their little eyes out and have a moment of release, for an hour and 55 minutes!" I want to be able to touch people that way, and the only way that you're going to do that is if you keep pushing, you keep moving forward.